Hello friends, welcome to another update of my West Ham story. This update runs you through our results from August up until December. We disappointed in the Premiership and FA cup last season but triumphed in the League Cup and the Champions League. This season i want to win everything with our all out attacking formation. Lets go straight to two competitions we are participating for the first time, the European Super Cup and the Club World Championship.

European Super Cup

Our first cup competition was the European Super Cup against Chelsea who won the Europa League. The match was played in Lens. We had chances twice as much than Chelsea but the goal came at the courtesy of counter attack. New signing Diego Garcia received the ball when Ryan Shawcross headed the ball to safety from a Chelsea corner. He made a good run down the right flank and unleashed a shot at goal. Petr Cech had a good save but the rebound fell to Gaston Ramirez who had the simplest task of tapping the ball to the empty net. The goal turned out to be the winner as Chelsea simply had no answer to break down our resolute defence. So we had our first trophy at our hands, the European Super Cup.

Club World Championship

In December we took a break from the domestic competition and had to travel all the way to the far east to compete in the Club World Championship. We received a bye to the semi-final and our opponents was Okayama FC who was the host. We were simply too strong for them and thrashed them 4-0.

We faced Corinthians of Brazil in the final. We had complete advantage of the game and scored early through an own goal. However, Corinthians converted one of their rare chances and made it 1-1 in normal time. They packed their field with eleven players and made things difficult for us. In the end, we needed a Kyriakos Papadopoulos header from a corner to win the trophy for us. We can proudly announce we are the champions of the world now.

League Cup

League Cup 3rd round saw us drawn against fellow London rivals Chelsea in Stamford Bridge. I thought it was a difficult draw but we ended up winning the game easily. We totally outplayed them with all the goals coming from the second half. Next against Blackburn was the Carlos Fierro show but the defence let themselves down as they conceded two goals to cause some nervy moments for the fans. I threw in the reserves in every position against Championship club Brighton and it almost proved costly. We had lots of chances but failed to convert most of them until the introduction of Simon Marsh whom i signed two seasons ago. His cut in from the left flank saw him break Brighton’s resilience with a curling goal. We progressed to the semi-finals and will ba facing one of our closest rivals, Man City.

Champions League

This season’s draw was kinder to us. We were placed in Group E with Juventus, Anderlecht and Galatasaray. I don’t see the last two capable of toppling us and Juventus for the top two spots.

Barcelona is still the favorites despite having a sub-par competitions in the past few seasons. We were lying in 5th with a 11-1 odds. I have no doubt we can retain the CL if the players kept up their desire to win. We have the qualities to do it again.

We had a great campaign except for the hiccup in Italy. A Luis Guilherme error allowed Juventus to take the game off us. Galatasaray forced a goalless draw with us in Turkey. Other than that, we had a 100% record with a couple of big wins. We managed to leapfrogged Juventus for the top spot after we narrowly edged them 1-0 in the last game of the group stage. Our 1st knockout round opponent is Olympiakos which gives us a good chance of progressing to the quarter final.

Premiership

We had a busy schedule. Due to the Club World Championship commitments and the progress in the cup competitions, a few matches was postponed. As a result, we played few matches less than most of the teams. We didn’t have a good start as Arsenal and Everton managed to hold us to a draw. After the Everton match, we found form and raced to seven wins in a row including a 2-1 win against Man City. Our form turn patchy again as we couldn’t find the net against Liverpool and Newcastle despite dominating the game. The rest of the games were against weaker opposition and we had no problems mastering another four wins in a row.

Table

We are level on points with Liverpool but lying in 1st position with a better goal difference. They played two games more and we have chance to extend the lead if we win our games in hand. This season proves to be a disaster for Chelsea and Tottenham as they are lying in 15th and 17th position, few points above the relegation spot. The Chelsea manager Glenn Roeder was just sacked as the position couldn’t justify the money(51 million) spent in the summer.

Players Ratings

I don’t have to repeat how good Ryan Shawcross as he always top the ratings. Yaya Sanogo was injured in early season and Carlos Fierro has vastly improved from last season’s woes. He took up the scoring responsibilities and has 12 goals to his name now. New signings Lenny Nangis and Diego Garcia settled to the squad very well especially Nangis. His 1.8 million transfer fee looks a real bargain.

Terrible Finances

Our finances looks worrying and that really explains why i am hesitating on spending every single amount of transfer funds i have. Our current loans of 50 million and 147 million will take a long time to clear and i hope the situation will improve with the new stadium completed in June 2018.

That’s pretty all for my West Ham updates. Before i end the post, i am please to inform i go into international management again.

Managing Holland

The Dutch FA sacked their manager after a disastrous World Cup campaign. They failed to qualify automatically and had to compete in the play-offs.

I was expected to lead them to the World Cup final but the first leg of the play-off final had been played and Holland trailed Ukraine by two goals. I tried to rally the players and the players responded by bombarding the Ukraine defence in the return leg. However, we only managed to score one goal and we went out at 1-2 on aggregate. My job is still safe despite the elimination and i have a lot to do. Holland has quality young stars but they were not given any chance to impress by the former manager. My main focus is to develop a group of youngsters who hopefully go on and bring honor to the country.

Alright friends, this is quite a long post and i hope you are not bored by the length of it. Thanks a lot for reading and i look forward to your comments.

We won the League Cup and the Champions League last season but missed out on the Premiership title due to the fact we drew a lot of games. My target this season is to regain the lost title and try our best to sweep all trophies in front of us. First of all, we need to know the amount of transfer funds being released.

Transfer Funds

Due to the construction of a new stadium, the financial was a bit tighter compared to last season but we still received quite a lot of money, 33.5 million with the target set as title challengers. The wage cap is 1.3 million which is slightly higher to our current wage. I am trying to spend within the budget every season so i won’t be paying over the top on transfer fees.

Transfers Out

Most of the players who left are a couple of players whose contract was not renewed and a few loans for our youth. We did recouped 10.6 million from the sales of Sami Khedira, Thanos Petsos and Thanasis Karagounis. Sami Khedira is 29 and i have a few younger players who can take his place while Petsos and Karagounis left to seek first team football which i was unable to promise.

Transfer In

Only six players will be joining us this season. One of them will go straight to the first team, three will be squad players and the other two are youth with potential. Lets take a look at the players.

Dubbed as a wonderkid, Diego Garcia has already featured in the Argentinian national team. A 9 million signing from AEK, he is capable of playing in midfield, attacking midfielder and forward roles. Quick, skillful and intelligent. I think we have signed a real gem. The only weakness is probably his selfishness.

I am trying to look for a replacement in the right back position after the sale of Thanos Petsos. I am always looking for young players with huge potential. I found one young Brazilian but his club was asking for ridiculous amount of money and i ended up signing a player from a fellow Premiership club. Romario is only 23 and we got him from Wolves for 7 million. He is quick and should provide a decent back up for Rolando Noguera.

Coutinho was not popular with his manager during his time in Inter Milan. He joined us for 3.1 million. I need a squad player to help Gaston Ramirez in the left wing position and Coutinho could be a useful player for us.

Lenny Nangis was a player full of frustration when he was in Man Utd. He was transfer listed for 1.8 million. With this small amount of money, i immediately act on it to secure his signature. His main position is the striker but i will employ him in the wings as his pace, flair, off the ball and dribbling attributes makes him a perfect winger.

Both Sjors Beljer and Jamie Dunn are 17 year old and signed for the future. They can go on and become West Ham icons if they work hard enough. Jamie Dunn was immediately loaned out to Millwall but i willl personally train Sjors Beljer, so he will be featuring in less important games.

Friendly Games

We had a 100% record in the pre-season friendlies as we won all the games against some tough European clubs. Yaya Sanogo possessed his deadly touch as usual as he managed to hit six goals to kick off the new season.

Premiership Odds

Man City is the media’s choice every season to win the title. We were lying in 3rd place behind Liverpool at 8-1 odds.

As i mentioned we have almost won everything in my West Ham story, i will be more adventurous with the formation i will be using. Below is a brief idea of my philosophy and strategy.

I will see how the results go and a detailed post on the formation will be explain if we have success with it.

That’s all for my pre-season updates friends. Hopefully we will see better results in the Premiership. Thanks a lot for reading and i look forward to your comments.

There wasn’t any change of season expectation as i have set a target of challenging for the title. We still have plenty of money for transfers but i didn’t bring in any first team players. Instead two young players are joining us. One is left back Christ Batidi and the other is central defender David Neville.

This transfer window saw the sole departure of James Tomkins which the decision didn’t go down well with the supporters. He saw little first team action and i made a promise to let him go. He left for Blackburn for 5 million, i thought that was not a bad deal for us.

League Cup

Let’s recap a bit of the League Cup competition. We narrowly edged Man City away in the quarter finals and our semi-final opponent is another Manchester team.

Semi-Final

We travelled to Old Trafford for our first leg and were unlucky to finished as a draw. We actually led by two goals in the first half but Man Utd rallied and came back strongly in the second half to gain a draw.

We took advantage of support from the home crowd in the second leg and were the better team throughout ninety minutes. A Man Utd own goal in eleven minutes gave us the lead but Javier Hernandez equalized just before half time. Seven minutes after the break, a through ball found Yaya Sanogo and he didn’t make any mistakes in putting the ball past David De Gea. We did well defensively for the rest of the game and progressed to the League Cup final meeting Liverpool who eliminated Newcastle in the other semi-final.

Final

They are the current leader in the Premiership but they certainly didn’t play like one. It seemed too easy for us as we raced to a two goal lead in the first half. We created lots of chances and Liverpool found it hard to threaten our goal. Ryan Shawcross led by example when he headed us the lead just nine minutes into the final. Yaya Sanogo then doubled our lead in 24 minutes with a powerful finish. Our third goal came in the last minute after substitute Miralem Sulejmani unleashed a shot but Reina could not hold on to it and diverted the ball into the net. We finally laid our hands on a trophy which eludes us for five season.

FA Cup

Our FA Cup tour was not a happy one for sure as we failed to defend the trophy. We won the first three opposition fairly easy but met a resilient Newcastle side who knocked us out. The winner came from a former player Gianni Bruno who has improved a lot as a footballer. I din’t put in my strongest team as we had a European game coming up but that wasn’t an excuse. We were the poorer team on this day.

Champions League

First leg against Lyon was disastrous as we were reduced to 10 men four minutes after the opening whistle. Carlos Fierro who was sub-par so far produced a tackle which didn’t go down well with the referee. Lyon took control and produced the only goal in the game to win 1-0. We had to raised our game in France for the return leg and the players produced a superb performance to take the tie. We managed to scored early in 9th minute through Marc Muniesa and Gaston Ramirez doubled the score nine minutes later. Lyon was shocked but managed to pull a goal back. It was 2-2 with us leading by away goals. Yaya Sanogo made sure we progress with a fine taken goal and an own goal by Bacary Sagna made it 4-2 on aggregate.

Our quarter final opponent was Juventus. We had to settled for a goalless draw despite dominating the game in Italy. We had to prevent them from scoring when they travelled to The Boleyn Ground. It was a great start for us when Younes Belhanda fired our first goal under one minute and some of the fans are still ushering to their seats. Juventus was not help when they played one man less in 9th minute. Our midfielders pull the string for us and another two goals in 12th and 60th minute put us in a comfortable position. Juventus was reduced to nine men in 57th minute and that virtually killed off their chances of coming though they got a consolation goal after our third goal.

Semi-final saw us drawn against Marseille and we had an easier run-in compared to the rounds before. Two legs saw us won 5-1 on aggregate and we reached our first ever Champions League final. In the other semi-final, Real Madrid knocked out Man City 3-1 and the final will be played in Brussels.

Champions League Final

We faced a balance and strong Real Madrid side who consist of attacking trio in Higuain, Ronaldo and Mata. Sahin and a Mexican regen pull the strings in midfield and an experience defence who look capable of containing any side. First half was a tight affair as both side didn’t produce any eye-catching performance. The match was feeling more boring as the clock ticked by. One was wonder when the goal will come. It did and came two minutes after the break. A smashing shot from almost 25 yards by Cristian Orellana caught Casillas off guard and the ball went in off underside of the bar. Real Madrid was shaken. They tried to turn their fortunes by changing to 4-4-2 formation but their attacking trio was well marshaled by our defence led by the wonderful Ryan Shawcross. Real Madrid was frustrated and we took advantage by scoring another two late goals in three minutes. A 86th minute penalty was converted by Miralem Sulejmani and Carlos Fierro got on the party when he came on to score our third goal one minute from full time. It was our happiest moment when the whistle was blown and we were the Champions of Europe.

Premiership

There were 19 games left in the second half of the season and we didn’t perform well enough. 10 wins, 9 draws and a loss was certainly not good enough on paper as we dropped too many points. I could give some excuses such as fatigue and injuries but it was frustrating for us in our domestic competition. We still amassed a total of 82 points but is that good enough for us to retain the title?

Sadly NO. We failed to retain the title with a difference of seven points. Liverpool had an outstanding season as they led from start to finish with their consistent performances. They pipped Man City and us for their 19th league title. This was a poor season for us as we won with 94 points last season.

Players Rating

I was pleased with most of the players especially Ryan Shawcross who topped the rating every season. He is turning 29 but i am not thinking of selling him. I will retain him in the team until he retire. New signing Cristian Orellana had a slow start but he was more settled in the second half of the season and start repaying the 9 million we spent on him. The disappointment this season was Carlos Fierro. He is not even in the screenshot. He couldn’t step up when Sanogo was out injured. I was wondering whether he couldn’t play as a lone striker. What do you think? Has anybody played him in a lone strikers position?

I am preparing to give him one more chance as i believe he has the qualities. If it still couldn’t work out, i will make the decision then.

New Stadium Underway

We received some good news from the board during the close season. A new stadium is under construction though there is no creativity on the stadium name, it’s call West Ham Stadium. The board secured a heavy loan to achieve that and that means we have to pay almost 1 million every month to the bank until 2032. It’s still a big step forward as we are going to attract more fans and increase our revenue.

Last season, we won the Premiership and the FA Cup. This season was a big contrast as we lost these two competitions and won the double with the League Cup and Champions League. I won’t say i am too disappointed but we could do better. I have virtually won everything with West Ham now but don’t intended to stop. The focus will be changing for me next season.

I will try to win all competitions next season and achieve it with fluid and attacking football. I will go all out with very fluid and attacking formation next season. Hopefully we will produce some breathtaking football.

That’s all for my updates of my West Ham story 2016/17 season ends report. Thank you friends for reading and i look forward to your comments.

We were knocked out of the League Cup 3rd round for 5 seasons consecutively. Let’s hope this is the season when our fortunes turn for the better.

League Cup 3rd Round

League Cup 4th Round

League Cup Quarter Final

We finally saw some breakthrough this season as we beat Everton convincingly in The Bolyen Ground but struggled to overcome West Brom. It took a Khouma Babacar goal thirteen minutes from time to settle the tie. The quarter final was a tough one as we met Man City away at The City of Manchester stadium. Defensively we were unbeatable as we employed a counter strategy. The tactic paid off as another late goal from Khouma Babacar saw us advanced to the semi-final and we will face another Manchester team who don red.

Champions League

We are still some way being a continental giant so the 16-1 odds didn’t surprise me. Barcelona is the favorites to lift the title, their rival Real Madrid and the two Manchester teams are not far behind.

The Champions League this season looked very familiar to me. Why did i say that? Look at who we drawn against in the group stages.

If you remember last season, these are the same opposition we faced last season. We were too familiar with each other. Looking at the squad, once again it will be down to Barcelona, Paris St Germain and West Ham vying for the two 1st knockout round qualifying spots as Sampdoria is still the weakest team in this group.

A narrow 1-0 win over Sampdoria in Italy got us to a good start. Next was a home game against Barcelona. Though the scored read 2-1 to us but we could have won the game comfortably. We gave a demonstration of breathtaking attacking football to them who is the master of neat passing and attacking game. Look at how many shots we created against them.

The game against Paris St Germain was a disappointing one. We actually took control of the game until a rash tackle from Gaston Ramirez in 29 minutes saw the referee flashed the red card at him. From that onwards, Paris St Germain dominated the game and raced to a 3-0 lead under 47 minutes. Credit to the players, they never give up and scored two in the later stages to make it 2-3 but there was not enough time for us to complete the comeback.

PSG seems to be our bogey team as we failed to beat them in the return leg. Two quick goals in the first half saw us trailing 0-2 at half time. Harsh words were lashed out and we did well to equalize but failed to find the winning goal which stretched their unbeaten run against us to four games.

Next two game saw us beat Sampdoria comfortably and a defeat in the last game against Barcelona will see us knock out of the Champions League. The players gave their all and we lead 2-1 most of the time in Nou Camp until a Alexis Sanchez goal saw the games finish 2-2.

It was a disaster for the title favorites as they finished in 3rd place and will be playing in the Europa League. A superior head-ons record saw PSG finished above us and took 1st place. Our 1st knockout round opponent is Lyon. They finished above Man Utd in their group and that tells a lot about their quality. We need to be careful there.

Premier League

Lastly we turned our attention to the Premier League as the FA cup has not commenced until January.

Results

We had a good start winning the first three games scoring nine and conceded none including beating Man Utd at their home turf by three goals. After that our goals dried up and it was hard to get the ball into the net. The situation was not helped by the absence of Carlos Fierro and Yaya Sanogo who were out injured 4 and 5 weeks respectively. Creating chances was not a problem but we lack a poacher to finish off the chances. That explained there are a few 1-0 wins even the opposition was much weaker than us.

The return of Carlos Fierro didn’t help as he kept missing chances. It was a sub-par season for the mexican.

His conversion rate is a pathetic 3%. Only 2 goal return for 52 attempts. He is definitely a quality player but this is not acceptable. Even Khouma Babacar and Connor Wickham who had lesser playing time fared better. Guess i should drop him and play Babacar more. Luckily for us, Yaya Sanogo’s coming back from injury gave us hope we will fare better in the second half of the season.

Table

The league table looks a bit unfamiliar now. Liverpool surprised all with their form and currently leading the packs with 53 points though Man City and us have a game in hand. This season will probably see the top four teams vying for the title but Liverpool is definitely the favorites if they can keep up the form. We have the meanest defence in the league but compared to the top two teams, our strike rate needs to be improve.

Players Rating

Captain Ryan Shawcross led by example as he is the best player in the first half of the season. Yaya Sanogo is not too far behind and definitely can be better if not for his injury. New signing Cristian Orellana is not too convincing in his debut season and i expect a better outing from him for the rest of the season.

Our financial situation is pretty bad. We are losing money every month. Though we still have 30 over million transfer fund available but i decide against spending a big bulk of it. There will be some transfer activities going on in January. I have pre-arrange two young players and most likely they will have to wait for their time to go into the first team.

Well friends, that’s all about it for our 2016/17 season. Thanks for reading and i look forward to your comments.

After finishing our highest position and completed the double last season, we are looking for more glory this season. First of all lets take a look at the board’s expectations for the coming season.

Season Expectation

The board offered us a lot of money this season. They were looking at a minimum of Champions League qualification and 42.5 million was available for players purchase. There was also an extra of 150k for the players’ wages. I felt we should be up there challenging for the title and chose title challenge as our target. This resulted an increase by another 9.5 million in transfer funds and 100k in the salary.

I didn’t intend to spend every penny as i thought we have a pretty strong squad. Maybe just a couple of additions should be sufficient. New players arriving mean some of the old guards will be leaving. Lets proceed to the transfer out screenshot to see who was released.

Transfer Out

The biggest name to leave the club was Bressan who joined us during our championship days. He is 27 and i felt he has realized his potential with us. He was sold to Shakhtar for 5.25 million. Another midfielder who left was Swedish international Ivo Pekalski who never really perform as well as i should expected. This season also saw the departure of Jordan Spence who had fallen down the order in the right-back berth.

Transfer In

Not too many transfer activities, we will see six new arrivals. Luca Dolce and Luis Barros are two young players who will see first team football in few seasons time. Only Cristian Orellana is worthy for a first team place. The rest are back-up players who are young and need to train hard to break into the first team.

Cristian Orellana is an Argentinian who joined us from Dynamo Kyiv for 9.5 million. He has pretty strong attributes in the physical and mental department. Strong and comfortable with both feet, he is a natural leader with his energy and determination.

Gregory Vandevelde is a 18 years old Belgian youth international. Villarreal allowed him to join us for 3.8 million. His stats is very impressive consider his age and he can be the perfect player to take over Younes Belhanda when i decide to sell him away.

Christophe Labadie joined us from French Ligue 2 club Avignon for 2.4 million. A hardworking and strong young lad who has the potential to be a leading Premiership player.

FM always produce lots of good regens for the Argentinians. Federico Rodriguez is another player from South America who will be slowly introduce to the first team. His technical attributes can’t be faulted but need to improve on his physical side to be a complete striker.

That’s pretty much for the transfer news. I have a big squad. Most of them are young and should be ready to step up at any point of time when required. We still have 30 over million transfer funds untouched. The squad can be strengthen anytime in the next transfer window.

Friendly Results

I purposely arranged some tough opposition from European League and i was surprised with some of the results. We beat AC Milan and Barcelona quite comfortably. Only Inter denied us a 100% record in pre-season friendlies.

 Premiership Odds

Man City is still the favorites to land on the Premiership title with Man Utd and West Ham not far behind. I still believe Man City prove to be our biggest threat this season if we are to win our second consecutive title.

Inter Approach

I had an approach from the Inter chairman shortly after the friendly game earlier. No second thoughts, i rejected straight away as i believe we are on par with them in club reputation. Besides, my job is not yet finish in West Ham.

Community Shield

We had a chance to win our first trophy before the league kicks off with a meeting against Man City in the community shield. It was a dull match. Chances were far and few. We took the lead with a fast counter attack and Yaya Sanogo laid the ball for Younes Belhanda to strike it in. Man City hit back with a Vincent Kompany header early in the second half and the game headed for the penalties after 90 minutes. Our regular takers were substituted and young players like Christophe Labadie, Andreas Llama and Frederik Lassen missed the spot kick to gift the community shield to Man City.

Though we lost the community shield but the real challenge starts six days later. We need to overcome the disappointment to have a good start against Aston Villa. Our target this season is to sweep all the trophies coming our way. I hope we can do that.

That’s all for my pre-season updates. Thanks for the read and i look forward to any comments you have.

I finally find some time to complete 2015/16 season for my West Ham story. Since my posting time has reduced significantly, i decide to consolidate and publish as a summary post.

Just to recap, we made nine new signings in pre-season with the most notable players being Kyriakos Papadopoulos, Gaston Ramirez, Carlos Fierro and Albin Ekdal. Are these players enough to capture our first title in the Premiership? Lets find out.

League Cup

We started the competition heading on to the League Cup. We seem to lack of luck in this competition as we were always drawn against tough Premiership opposition. This season we were drawn to face Liverpool in Anfield.

Even though i did not send out my strongest team but it was still a team full of internationals. Liverpool shocked us with an early lead in 4th minute but Younes Belhanda strike for us in 35th minute for the equalizer. The rest of the game saw both team evenly matched with plenty of shots but no further goals to separate each other.

The game went to penalties and it took eleven spot kicks from each side to produce a winner. Liverpool triumphed 7-6 and knocked us out of the League Cup.

Champions League

Last season we faced teams from the La Liga(Real Madrid), Ligue 1(OM) and Seria A(Udinese). It was coincidence we were drawn into a group with teams from the same league.

It was a tough draw against Barcelona and mega rich PSG but i believe we have the quality to go through.

We suffered a defeat in the hands of Barcelona in the first game but claim a shock win when we won 2-1 in Nou Camp. Paris Saint -Germain and us failed to beat each other home and away. Samdoria seemed to be the weakest side in the group as we beat them both home and away.

That was close. Barcelona top the group with 12 points while PSG and West Ham had 11 points and same goal difference. The two goals scored in France made a difference and we  narrowly edged PSG to the 1st knockout round.

I knew we will face some strong teams after finishing second to Barcelona in the group stages but i certainly don’t expect to face Real Madrid so early on. We knocked them out in last season’s semi final and it was revenge time for them.

They truly did as they hold us to a 2-2 draw in Upton Park and raised their game to win 2-0 in the second leg. Our Champions League dream was over. There were only two competitions left for us to win something this season.

Premiership

Half the season gone, we raced to the top of the Premiership with 17 wins and 3 draws. We showed championship form as only Man Utd, Chelsea and Newcastle managed to steal points from us. I was especially happy with the win against The Citizens as we beat them 2-0 at home.

We hold a eight point lead over Man Utd who was still unbeaten like us. It seems like a two horse race with 18 games left. Man City was lying in 3rd 17 points away from us. After finishing 2nd last season, we are the real favorites to take the Premiership title this season.

In January, the board offered us a change of season expectation but there wasn’t too much money in the bank. I was offered 1.77 million for player purchase and 1.1 million for player wages. Besides the sale of goalkeeper Francesco Bardi to Alaves for 2 million and two loans, no other transfer activities were involved.

Second half of the season saw us consolidated our position and raced to our first ever Premiership title. 11 wins and 7 draws concluded us as the new invincibles of the Premier League. It was especially pleasing as we secured the title with three matches left.

This was the final table after 38 games. We finished the season at a all time high of 94 points with no loss. A marvelous achievement and sweet revenge over Man City who finished second with 83 points. It was a strong second half of the season performance by Man City as they overtook the red half of Manchester for the second spot.

FA Cup

I would say the route to the FA cup final was fairly easy as the draw has been extremely kind to us. We avoided all the big teams and the opposition of the last three round was teams from the lower division. I would be very disappointed with the lads if we couldn’t manage to bring the trophy home. Our opposition in the FA Cup final was Aston Villa who i was confident of winning.

We have a great start to the game with Yaya Sanogo fired us to the lead in 8th minutes but clearly complacency was shown as goalkeeper Rafael turned the ball into his own net from a Aston Villa freekick. Yaya Sanogo restored our lead seven minutes from half time after he rounded a Aston Villa defender and volleyed a low shot into the net. From that onwards, it’s all West Ham dominance but we had to wait until the later stages when Carlos Fierro and Andres Llama scored two goals to show our superiority. With the FA Cup won, we completed our first double in the history of West Ham football club.

Players Rating

Yaya Sanogo remained our main source of goals but i gave plenty of chances to the whole squad as the goals was evenly distributed among the rest of the players. Captain Ryan Shawcross put it another season of consistent performances and led by example.

I hope i don’t have to make massive changes to the squad next season as we have a young squad. Next season will be focus on upgrading the facilities and maintain a healthy bank balance.

Well, that’s it for the update of my West Ham story 2015/16 season. I know it has been too long waiting for this post and i am glad to be back. I will try my very best to update as soon as i can for the next report. Meanwhile thank you very much for your patience and support. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to head down to the comment box. Cheers!

Here is my little boy. His name is Kevan. A chubby little boy as he weighs 3.905kg.

I need to leave my beloved FM game for a while and i hope to get back as soon as i can. Meanwhile i will still be reading your stories and try my best to comment in it.

Cheers!

Lye

Liverpool Approach

I was offered to take over at Anfield during the close season. Definitely a resounding no from me but the huge transfer budget certainly raise a few eyebrows from me.

Season Expectation

In my last post, i mentioned my initial budget is 33 million. Due to massive spending in June when the transfer window opened up, i am left with 8 million with a minimum target of Euro Cup qualification. I am confident my team is capable of finishing in the top four, i choose a target of CL qualification and the transfer budget increased to 11 million. For the first time, we see our wage budget cross the 1 million mark. The departure of several players this month will free up even more wages for new players.

Transfer Out

Quite a long list of players who have left the club. Mostly are players whose contract has expired and would not fit into my plans this season. I reluctantly sold two loyal Hammer Mark Noble and Jack Collison to Bristol City and Birmingham respectively. They won’t be seeing much first team action these days and it’s very selfish of me to let them rot on the bench. I think they deserve better than this.

Transfer In

I spent every budget i have on nine players. Four of them are young regens but all capable to walk into the first team. The rest of them are real life players and you should be quite familiar with them if you read Johnny’s FMS Scouting Network authored by the marvelous Darren Smith. Some are wonderkids in their earlier days and i am quite excited by the addition of the new signings. Lets go through the players one by one. Honestly i think they are very good and i can’t leave anyone out of the introduction.

I missed out on Carlos Fierro when he was 16. I had to pay his club Chivas 13.5 million to get him as he is much established now at the age of 20. Fierro did well for Darren’s Malaga and i hope he will do the same for me. His partnership with Yaya Sanogo should be a deadly one if both of them are on fire.

I am a big fan of strong center back Kyriakos Papadopoulos. He is unsettled inSchalke with him falling out of favor with the management. There are a number of clubs fighting for his signature and i am glad he decided to join us at a fee of 11.25 millions. Whatever attributes you need for a center back, he has it. Probably his only weakness is his jumping  and heading not as high as the rest of defensive attributes.

Gaston Ramirez was signed to give us some solid option on the left midfield area where Miralem Sulejmani is the only quality player we have. He joined Galatasaray from Bologna and has since flourished into a quality player. I paid 9.5 million for his signature and he will be the first choice ahead of Sulejmani. All round attributes which you have nothing to complain. I believe he will be a great signing.

Swedish International Albin Ekdal joined us from Juventus for 6 million and his addition gives us more bite and steel in the central of the park. Strong mental attributes and he surely doesn’t lack on the physical and technical side. Could form a steel partnership with Sami Khedira in the middle.

Jamie Ness joined us for nothing from Rangers when his contract expired. A useful squad player. Great eye for passing and very creative. I guess i can easily get a profit if i sell him in one or two season’s time.

Nicolas Gimenez is a wonderkid who refused a new contract from Malaga and i got him in the summer on a free. He just picked up his first cap for Argentina recently. That shows how highly he is regarded in his native land. Will be a squad player for now but he can grow to be a club legend in future.

Another young Argentinian regen joining us for 2 million from Racing Club is Rolando Noguera. He plays at right back and will push Jordan Spence down to third choice. He will play deputy to Thanos Petsos. Superb pace, strong defensive attributes and determined young lad. Will push for a starting place if he develops well.

The only Englsh player who is joining us is Simon Marsh. I signed him from Burnley for 1.4 million. A current youth international who will get his fair chances to develop. I have the home-grown rules in mind when i bid for him. He is 18 and has a PA of four stars to grow into a leading Premiership striker.

Last but not least, Czech youth international Jan Zboncak was signed for a mere fee of 55k. A backup player in case Miralem Sulejmani or Gaston Ramirez gets an injury.

Friendly Results

Pretty mixed results there as we were able to draw against Barcelona and Real Madrid but suffered defeat against SLB and Torino. I guess the new signings need time to blend into the squad.

Premiership Odds

We are the fifth favorite to lift the title. Not surprisingly as we are still few places behind in the reputation ranking but we can spring some surprise by defying the odds.

Approach From USA and Chile

In June, i had two offers from USA and Chile both wanted me to be their manager. Not satisfied with the West Ham job, i decided to accept the Chile job managing Alexis Sanchez and co for the world cup qualifying matches.

I always feel the South American qualifying is one of the hardest as Argentina and Brazil are virtually too good for the rest. The minimum of the Chile FA is to qualify for the World Cup which i think is achievable with the talent Chile possesses.

A new deal for me

With one year left in my contract, the Chairman moves swiftly to tie me to West Ham FC to an extension of another three years. My contract will run out in June 2019.

Upcoming Games

We will immediately face some tough opposition when the season starts. Two London rivals await us in August and the two Manchester teams and Liverpool next in September and October. I am not worry and i can’t wait to start now.

There are some off-field activity going on with new kit sponsorship and upgrading of the training and youth facilities. All efforts are channel to make West Ham the biggest club in the world. After coming so close last season, have we finally found the final puzzle and win our first Premiership title under my rule? We will wait and see. Well, friends, that conclude my pre-season report. Thanks for reading and the support. As usual, i will be waiting for your comments. Care to make any predictions? See you soon.